Johnson Matthey accelerates consolidation of 10,000 users and 27 forests into a single Active Directory forest with Migration Manager for Active Directory

ActiveRoles Server provides secure, automated user and group management for the new consolidated AD structure

Dell combines AD migration and identity management to deliver a solution in eight months versus an estimated four years, with no data loss or disruption to majority of users

Support calls from local administrators decrease from five or six calls per day to only one to two calls per month

Dell today announced that its migration, compliance, and identity and access management offerings enabled an end-to-end solution for international specialty chemicals company Johnson Matthey that reduced Active Directory (AD) migration time by 83 percent, and decreased support calls from local identity administrators by 98 percent.

A FTSE 100 company on the London Stock Exchange, Johnson Matthey needed to respond to its disparate working cultures across its 27 Active Directory forests. The company has 10,000 users in 30 countries, and recent growth led to a need to consolidate all of its AD forests into a single forest for centralized authorization and administration of users and computers in the network. This would enable better integration with existing systems, heightened security, and more effective communication and collaboration between locations. Following the migration, the company needed to effectively manage the new AD, including the delegation of administrative rights to each office for local identity and access management.

Dell’s 3-pronged solution was identified by Johnson Matthey as the most comprehensive value proposition available by any vendor to manage the consolidated AD structure and provide identity management, including delegation of permissions to local administrators.

The Migration Manager for Active Directory component of the solution enabled migration into a single Active Directory forest, and ensured a smooth directory consolidation, with no impact on the majority of users - who were generally unaware of the migration. As part of the move, Johnson Matthey also was able to migrate 100 percent of email access for users without major data loss or business disruption.

With the renewed emphasis on building and maintaining the most secure and efficient AD environment possible, the company also implemented ChangeAuditor™ for Active Directory to track and alert on configuration changes in real time, while allowing local level management of computers, servers and accounts. It was particularly important to allow each local office to tailor their security and access rights to local requirements.